New Action Formerly: Metropolis

Following the May 2010 demise of after-hours bar New Action, Stuttgart-raised Thomas Pfizenmaier (owner of Hamburg's S.L.U.T.) stepped in to salvage what had been a cult favourite fetish-friendly Schöneberg bar, and in September 2010 reopened the corner spot to instant success. Gutted beyond recognition, the venue was reinvented with a new layout — including an arena-like space — and modern lighting, not to mention radically changed toilet/darkroom areas. The new New Action lacked the original's signature organic (read: festery) feel, and disappointed with its marked shift in music — previously provided by the former New Action's clued-in bar staff — but true to the spirit of Berlin, the bar has proven to have staying power throughout the night and early morning, serving those who've exhausted Scheune (or Mutschmann's perhaps) and offering refuge in its darkened corners out back. The dress code embraces leather, rubber, work clothes, skins, boots, uniform, army and biker, plus jeans worn in conjunction with a full skin sensibility. Smoking is allowed, but the airflow system is effective. The bar becomes especially heaving during the Easter and Folsom Europe leather/rubber weekends, typically playing host to 500 or 600 men, many colonising the corner spot outside the main entrance. And if you still require a break-of-dawn fix, 24-hour final-resort sex hole Bull [see entry] is located immediately next door. For the record, the name 'New Action' goes back to a time when there were gay bars — including one called Action — located around the junction of Lietzenburger Straße and Uhlandstraße. In the 1980s two partners owned the café/bar Action (Lietzenburger Straße 77) but they split up, and the partner who left started New Action, which then outlived the original Action. New Action is now closed Monday and Tuesday, and weekends in peacetime (i.e. not Easter and not Folsom in September) can be quieter than foreign visitors might expect. Two-for-one Thursdays are very popular. The bar was closed during the initial COVID-19 period, like every other bar, but on 3 June 2020 started up a special outdoor/indoor service, temporarily rebranded as Café Corinna. As of the 'cancelled' Folsom Europe event in mid-September 2020, New Action was operating to near-full capacity, with huge numbers out on the pavement. Check website for Wednesday to Sunday details. A three-minute walk from Nollendorfplatz U-Bahn.